For a long period of time, it was customary to harvest forage crop material, such as hay and the like, by mowing the same, arranging it in windrows, and then processing the same by means of a baling machine in which the windrows were arranged in flat, accordian configuration and compressed into a rectangular bale around which one or more tying strands were disposed to secure the bales in the desired configuration. Bales of this type normally were stored in a suitable enclosure such as a shed or barn, while under some circumstances, stacks of the bales were left in the field but covered by waterproof sheeting of some type.
In more recent years, it has been found feasible to continuously pick up a swath or windrow of forage crop material, such as hay, and arrange the same into a compact coil of substantial size comprising a roll type bale. Such bales are commonly of the order of four or five feet in diameter and may be approximately five or six feet or more in length. One advantage of such bales is that when left in a field in which feeding of live stock occurred, the bale could rest directly upon the ground with the axis thereof parallel to the ground and, due to the cylindrical nature of the bale, and particularly in view of the fact that the strands of the hay comprising the bale are arranged substantially in circumferential manner, the upper portion of such a bale readily sheds rain and other inclement weather products, whereby it is not necessary to store bales of this type in any type of building affording a cover for the same unless such type of storage is desired.
Incident to forming crop material of this type into roll type bales, it has been found that under certain circumstances, mostly undesired, said bales are very dense and compact and, in particular, it is not possible for any substantial number of cattle to feed upon a single bale at any one time. Further, if a bale of this type is too compact, it is difficult for cattle and other livestock to effectively feed upon the bale due to the tightness of the fibers of the material therein.
In an effort to obviate the foregoing difficulty and particularly to provide means to shred the contents of such a bale and especially to dispose the same in feed containers or directly upon the ground in feed lots so that cattle and other livestock readily could consume the material, a method and apparatus for processing roll type bale comprises the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,074, dated Sept. 7, 1976, in the name of White et al. While the machine comprising the subject matter of said patent has certain attributes and is capable of effecting shredding or disintegrating of roll type bales, it has been found that certain improvements over said machine are possible and the present invention comprises a number of such improvements which are described in detail hereinafter and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings comprising part of the application.